@Privateer : Does it? My experience is that once a hireling has killed another by shooting him in the back during a robber fight there will not be any more hirelings from that village (unless the cool down is in the order of 10 years, as I don't think my character is that old yet).

Don't ever hire anyone with a missile weapon if there is even a remote risk of fighting, as fights will typically result in arrows in the back of someone (e.g. your character) who isn't an enemy. I'm not even sure missile equipped hirelings have dealt more damage to enemies than to allies.

If it's supposed to wane it might be that I'm subjected to yet another character migration issue (Sami has fixed a bunch of those), as my character was created back with the first 3.40 version (not incredibly old, but old enough to get some issues).

Been 3+ years here, and still no one wants to go hunting with me "until we see Tauno who went with you". I brought Tauno's lifeless body to the village back when he met his end, so everyone definitely saw him... Perhaps it's Driik sarcasm in action.

Been 3+ years here, and still no one wants to go hunting with me "until we see Tauno who went with you". I brought Tauno's lifeless body to the village back when he met his end, so everyone definitely saw him... Perhaps it's Driik sarcasm in action.

I'm afraid time won't heal the villagers feelings in regards to non-returning companions, but this is not a bug either, it's just a way it is, and I'll move the thread at suggestions.

Adding mechanisms to tell the NPCs what really happened is tricky, and still even if the companions would die fairly I don't know if villagers still should always be like "He died when hunting with you? Ok, we don't mind that, here have a another hunting assistant, we wish him better luck than the previous. Hehe."

This is something to tweak/ponder in the future, but there's not an easy way to find a good consensus.

The one case where I definitely feel death in the line of duty shouldn't tarnish the player's reputation too much is when trying to hunt robbers at the request of a village (i.e. the robber quest). I always feel a bit bad to hire these assistants for a "hunting trip" (with a whispered " hunting for robbers, that is"), rather than be honest about the nature of the mission.

I'm afraid time won't heal the villagers feelings in regards to non-returning companions, but this is not a bug either, it's just a way it is, and I'll move the thread at suggestions.

Adding mechanisms to tell the NPCs what really happened is tricky, and still even if the companions would die fairly I don't know if villagers still should always be like "He died when hunting with you? Ok, we don't mind that, here have a another hunting assistant, we wish him better luck than the previous. Hehe."

This is something to tweak/ponder in the future, but there's not an easy way to find a good consensus.

Wouldn't it be a simple case of adding a descriptor for where the damage came from? ie. deep knife cut/bit off arm. And then when you bring the body, the village shaman would examine the body to see if you were in fact telling the truth? Surely, getting killed by a bear would be different from a fight with a human?

And is there really that many different cases of death in the unreal world? Especially for NPC's?

I'm afraid time won't heal the villagers feelings in regards to non-returning companions, but this is not a bug either, it's just a way it is, and I'll move the thread at suggestions.

Adding mechanisms to tell the NPCs what really happened is tricky, and still even if the companions would die fairly I don't know if villagers still should always be like "He died when hunting with you? Ok, we don't mind that, here have a another hunting assistant, we wish him better luck than the previous. Hehe."

This is something to tweak/ponder in the future, but there's not an easy way to find a good consensus.

Wouldn't it be a simple case of adding a descriptor for where the damage came from? ie. deep knife cut/bit off arm. And then when you bring the body, the village shaman would examine the body to see if you were in fact telling the truth? Surely, getting killed by a bear would be different from a fight with a human?

And is there really that many different cases of death in the unreal world? Especially for NPC's?

That could be a good start, but how does the shaman know who's hand held the knife? Plenty of players have stated they hire NPC's and then kill them to steal their gear.

I'm afraid time won't heal the villagers feelings in regards to non-returning companions, but this is not a bug either, it's just a way it is, and I'll move the thread at suggestions.

Adding mechanisms to tell the NPCs what really happened is tricky, and still even if the companions would die fairly I don't know if villagers still should always be like "He died when hunting with you? Ok, we don't mind that, here have a another hunting assistant, we wish him better luck than the previous. Hehe."

This is something to tweak/ponder in the future, but there's not an easy way to find a good consensus.

Wouldn't it be a simple case of adding a descriptor for where the damage came from? ie. deep knife cut/bit off arm. And then when you bring the body, the village shaman would examine the body to see if you were in fact telling the truth? Surely, getting killed by a bear would be different from a fight with a human?

And is there really that many different cases of death in the unreal world? Especially for NPC's?

That could be a good start, but how does the shaman know who's hand held the knife? Plenty of players have stated they hire NPC's and then kill them to steal their gear.

I feel like, that would also be the case in the real world without DNA. Word travels fast in the unreal world. I can see situations where the village would expect death or serious injury.

Shamans should be able to ask the spirits. The spirits apparently know what's going in the forest. You could summon them every day if you want so they doesn't seem to be too busy anyway. And if there is no shaman in the village, there could be a quest to find another shaman, perform a ritual, and get some token which would serve as a proof than the player character is not guilty.

There already is quest to find out one kind of criminal (bird thief), so it wouldn't be out of character.